Unsafe buildings are biggest risk in Delhi’s earthquake zone
instead of trying to strengthen the enforcement mechanism, the authorities want to regularise construction violations on the basis of a certificate from a civil engineer vouching for the safety of the main structure. But who would inspect a system that has allowed such illegalities in the first place?
Granted, a shortage of affordable housing and space has incentivised illegal construction. In the absence of public housing, people turned to the illegal market where homes were cheap but not structurally safe. Granted, given the scale of irregularities, mass demolition is not an option. Regularisation drives recognise the rights of the citizenry to housing and workspace. But no matter how many justifications we have for the mess, they do not absolve the authorities, which have failed to plan, build, enforce and regulate the city’s housing sector.
Can there be a course correction? Yes, say experts, but only if the authorities are willing to quantify the problem, institute remedial measures and create a prevention mechanism so the future constructions can be safe. “Right now, everything is left a junior municipal engineer who may not even be qualified to handle structural safety,” says the official.
Delhi doesn’t lack expertise, says A K Jain, former planning commissioner of DDA. He suggests that the city authorities tap talent from engineering institutes and professional bodies of structural safety experts, who can conduct pro- fessional surveys and suggest remedies. But none of these will have any meaning without follow-up action.
After the 2010 building collapse in Lalita Park, which killed 71 people, a survey of 10,000 buildings had found that a majority of them were in a “poor state of health,” says Chandan Ghosh of the National Institute of Disaster Management that supervised the inspection. Eight years on, East Delhi is still the hub of illegal constructions.
For better enforcement, the city needs to create an agency comprising building officials, structural experts, residents associations, police and disaster management agencies. “While all old buildings must be surveyed by qualified experts, new buildings must undergo third-party checks at the construction stage itself. When a building is in a bad shape, repairing and retrofitting is either too expensive or not feasible at all,” says Ghosh.
Early detection also helps if the house owners are on board. Availability of structural engineers and trained masons for a reasonable fee and even a subsidy scheme for certain income groups in dire need of home improvement could draw more people in.
With much of Delhi situated in the extremely high-risk seismic zone IV, each case of building collapse should be a wake-up call. An oft-repeated saying by seismologists that “quakes don’t kill people, buildings do” sums up the potential danger the city is staring at.